Canadians choosing to die a dignified death where they lived – at home
It’s a common tale: a grandparent’s health begins to fail and, realistically, their death is imminent. Often those older patients are rushed to hospital, taken out of their homes for treatment that will likely only extend their life by a few days.
University of Alberta researcher Donna Wilson is hoping this can change and already has seen some drastic changes in where Canadians are choosing to die.
Wilson looked at mortality data of Canadians dating back to 1950. Up until 1994, 80 per cent of Canadians were choosing to pass on in a hospital bed. But since the mid-’90s there’s been a drastic change in the number of people going to hospital to die. The number is now down to 61 per cent.
“So after years of [the numbers] going up, we have completely reversed that and are now at the 1960 level, before there was free hospital care in Canada,” said Wilson, who adds the decrease in numbers of people dying in hospital has happened without direct health policy or government planning.
Her next study she wants to find out why this trend is happening. But she already has some ideas on the huge swing.
“My guess is that a lot of it has to do with the fact that death is no longer unexpected,” said Wilson. “A lot of people are dying at an advanced age and you begin to accept that fact that it’s going to happen and it [can be] a dignified event. If you take the person to the hospital . . . care is by strangers rather than family members.”
She’s calling on government to help support the trend of people dying at home.
“We need to start putting more money in to home care and develop some hospices, have some courses for families and maybe build a few more nursing home beds,” said Wilson, who adds this not only helps the health-care system but also can provide a more dignified and potentially less painful death for the patient.
Certainly appeals to me. My only concern would be for the hassles this might put my wife through.
But, I’m confident she’d be happier – as I would be – to die where we’ve lived happily together for so many years.
The cartoon reminds me of what are said to be chess IM Cecil Purdy’s dying words. Suffering a heart attack whilst playing at the board, he uttered, “I have a win, but it will take some time.”
K B
May 25, 2009 at 11:15 pm